Dear Friends of the Unreal —
As NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty warns in his book, week #2 is tough. For those of us who have trouble with plot, week #2 feels plodding, and uncomfortable, and at this point just a tad strange.
This morning I found myself haunted by books I’ve loved and characters I admire. By stories I wish I’d told myself, and by ideas I had in rough drafts of other stories but that I’ve had to abandon. The return of the repressed — so touted by Sigmund Freud — seemed to be occurring.
What to do?
Allow it. See where it goes.
I figured that in this morass of zombies something alive must lurk. And just as I decided this, a dead writer appeared on the doorstep of the project.
I’ve let him in, hoping — to paraphrase the Swedish horror movie — that he’s the right one.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Then uncross them, and continue writing.
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Published by Stephanie Barbé Hammer
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is a magical realist prose fiction writer, novelist, occasional essayist, and a committed, intermittent poet. A 6-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize she has published work in Hayden's Ferry, Pearl, CRATE, Rhapsoidia, NYCBigCityLit, the East Jasmine Review, Apeiron, Inlandia, Literary Alchemy and the Bellevue Literary Review among other places. Her novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ appeared in March 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press, and her Narrow Interior novelette, _Rescue Plan, appeared in February 2021 with Bamboo Dart Press. Her poetry collection _How Formal?_ was published in 2014 with Spout Hill Press and her prose poem collection _SEX WITH BUILDINGS_ was published in May 2012 by Dancing Girl Press. Stephanie flunked early retirement at the University of California Riverside and is currently feeding her teaching love at Edmonds Community College, Hugo House and the Inlandia Institute. iShe is currently managing editor for SHARK REEF literary magazine and is working on two new novels, and two new poetry collections, Her manual on how to write magical realism _Delicious Strangeness_ is available from Spout Hill Press.
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Stephanie Barbé Hammer Writing (Un) Real 
Fingers crossed. And when you’re done with the dead writer can you send him over to my house?
Ha! Deal. Thanks for commenting.
After Joe is done with that dead writer, who may or may not be spending time with him even now, could y’all send him my way? Keep writing. x0 N2
I’ll pack him up (on ice) and send him directly. Merci! 🙂